Just Jo!

Can you tell I haven’t even stepped out of the front door today?!
The closest I came to fresh air was when the door was opened to Lin, who then chucked a book at me.
Oh no, tell a lie….I did venture into the wilderness that is the back garden to return our bikes to their vigilant posts outside. We got back in the dark last night, so it was easier to bring our bikes indoors than faff around in the dark, there’s brambles hanging over the side gate and things out there!
I finished reading my library book. Olivia slaved away over more workbooks.
We made a choccy cake and iced it too! But in our impatience to ice it, we couldn’t wait for the icing to cool down to a setting consistency….so it sort of sagged over the edges….never mind….at least it meant we got to suck choccy icing fingers!
We made a pie. Because we didn’t have any of Linda McCartney in the freezer. (Um…that sounds a bit grim, must remember to come back and edit that particular sentence.) We made the chestnut and mushroom pie from Easy Vegan Cooking. (Our cake is supposed to look like the one on the cover. It so doesn’t.) We didn’t have enough mushrooms for the pie, so used soya chunks in addition to the lonesome mushrooms we did have. And didn’t use nutmeg. Or soy sauce. Or seasoning. We used Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon, and that is way salty enough for us. (Oh looky! Gotta keep an eye out for the reduced salt one. Will it be less salty? ‘Cos I don’t do salt. Unless it’s on chips. But I digress….) And only one onion. But apart from that , it was the chestnut and mushroom pie from Easy Vegan Cooking.

I knitted the next square of The Throw, just a bog standard boring garter stitch this week. Olivia read another one of her WBD books. The Code of Romulus. Which reminds me….I was feeling really guilty about receiving….ahem….4 vouchers, but when I’ve ‘fessed up mentioned it to anyone, they’ve all said, “Wish I’d thought of that!” So I don’t need to feel guilty after all. Except I do….

Dinner with Adam was lovely, but he disappeared straight after to meet a girl….
“What, so spending time with some floozy you met at a party is preferable to spending time with your Mother and little sister?”
“Er….yeah! See you later! Back about 2ish!”
“So you don’t want chocolate cake then?”
“Is it vegan?”
“Duh….yeah….”
“No thanks. See you later.”
I served up a huge slab of choccy cake, oozing with icing….
“Um….can I smell it?”
“OK.”
“Um….can I try a bit?”
“OK.”
“Um….can you save me a bit?”
“But it’s vegan. You don’t want to be vegan.”
“Please Mummy! I love you Mummy! Can you save me a bit Mummy?”
“I may save you a tiny sliver.”
And with that he was gone!

Right, Olivia’s in bed, doing some reading or Max and Lara, or something (look, if she’s quiet, me no care!), so I’m off for me Lush bath. Yes, I know I had a Happy Hippy yesterday morning, so today shouldn’t really be a Lush night….but that was a catch-up Lush….so it doesn’t count. Trust me. I’m an expert on these things.

….International Women’s Day, we did absolutely nothing today! And felt jolly good for it too!!
I gave considerable thought to cycling over to pottery, Olivia’s still got a few pieces there to pick up. But the padlock to the side gate is stuck and I couldn’t find the WD40 anywhere. I might have found it, if, perhaps, I’d looked in more than the one place I thought to look.
We could have dragged our bikes through the house. But as we’re celebrating IWD, we couldn’t possibly entertain the thought of doing anything strenuous like that.
I knitted this weeks square for The Throw. Olivia amused herself by starting a foundation row for crochet. And another one. And another one. We have wonderful pink strings all over the front room, in addition to fragments of nesting material.
We read books. We lazed. We wasted our time.
Then I realised Maisy needed food, so we donned coats and got the bus to town. Olivia also ended up with some new clobber from Primark. We got food. We got cat food and litter. I know it’s possible to get vegan cat food, and I’m sorely tempted at times because I can’t stand the smell of the meaty stuff, but it’s so expensive. And Maisy would probably pack her bags in a hissy fit anyway.
We bumped into Lin and the boys in The Works as well. So we said hello. Because that’s a nice thing to do.
After we went our seperate ways to continue shopping, we bumped into them again on the bus coming home. Lin got new trousers. They’re the same as mine that I got a few weeks ago. She copied me!!! I got mine first!!!
The boys had got their books for World Book Day. They got the same ones as Olivia. They copied her!!! She got hers first!!! OK, OK….I know that in their age range, those were the only books available, apart from the hideously pink ones that I banned Olivia from having, and I couldn’t quite see either of the boys going for them!

Adam was still on the ‘puter when we got home. When we’d gone out, he’d been typing up a 6 week plan for himself. He’s not going to drink any alcohol for the duration, if he goes out with friends, he’ll stick to soft drinks. He’s not going clubbing at all. He’s not eating any fast food or junk food and he’ll be going to the gym 5 times a week. The aim of this plan is to save money. He’s starting it on April 2nd. Let’s see how long it lasts….
He said to me that he’s going to put in a patent for his microwaveable baked beans tin idea. I said he’d better get a move on, because judging from some of yesterday’s comments, other people might get in there before him!
“Mother!! What did you do that for??!! That’s my idea!!”
Then, shaking his head sadly, “I can’t believe you did that!”
Oops….can you patent an idea though?

Seen over on IndigoShirl….

Your Brain is Green

Of all the brain types, yours has the most balance. You are able to see all sides to most problems and are a good problem solver. You need time to work out your thoughts, but you don’t get stuck in bad thinking patterns. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about the future, philosophy, and relationships (both personal and intellectual).

I have the most balanced brain. Ha!!!

Then, after what has been a very relaxed and lazy day, I kicked Adam off the ‘puter, “It’s my time now! Go be a teenager in your room!” Then I read this on Yahoo and I got seriously pissed off by a certain MP. Adam is black and he can’t understand why I’m not jumping for joy and celebrating his decision to join the RAF after his gap year. Racism is not acceptable in any way, shape or form. And pleading ignorance, a la Miss Goody, or just not thinking, in this day and age is f*****g pathetic and inexcusable. I won’t apologise for the bad language either. The only time I use strong language like that is when I’m seriously pissed off. Or repeating a joke.
But looking on the bright side, eternal optimist that I am, after 6 months with his Dad in London, followed by 6 months working in Spain, hopefully Adam will have changed his mind about the RAF. Hopefully. Fingers crossed. Toes crossed. Any other suitable body part crossed.

Olivia is having an early teenage sulk at the moment. We saw Lisa and the girls yesterday, I was keeping an eye on them for an hour or so at group, and a tentative arrangement was made for Olivia to stay the night at her house. I would say sleep, but by all accounts they don’t do much of that!
But Olivia couldn’t make her mind up. She finally decided for definite when we got home from town. So I gave Lisa a ring, but could only leave a message. Olivia’s sulking because…. “I really want to stay at Lisa’s! Can you phone her back?! Can you text her?! Can you do something??!!”
“No. You left it ’til the last minute. I rang Lisa, left a message and that is all I’m doing. For future reference, don’t leave it to the last minute to make up your mind.” (And I’m pretty certain this little nugget of wisdom has been passed on to both children on numerous occasions. )
She sulked.
“It’s your own fault, so get over it.”
Never have had much time for sulking kids.
But as I was typing this, there was a little tap at the door, “Is it too late to pick her up?”
“Oh, you are a life saver!!”
Yes! It was Lisa, she’d got my message. A life saver for Olivia, because quite honestly, I’m under the impression that it is now illegal to murder your children for sulking. But I’m a bit fuzzy on the law, you’ll have to correct me if I’m wrong.
And a life saver for me, because I’m also fuzzy on the legislation about using Lush in prison bathrooms.

Now, it’s dinner. A squashed Clive’s pie (Chestnut Cassoulet) and the last of the stuffed vine leaves from the deli we stopped at yesterday. Dessert will be strawberries and kiwiberry. They’re new, they’re baby kiwi fruit. They’re nice!
And tonight, in the name of sisterly solidarity (and because I won’t be spending the night in a cell after all), and celebrating women’s achievement’s in my own unique way, I’m going for an extra long Lush bath. I think Emmeline Pankhurst et al would be proud.
Perhaps not. Being decadent in loads of Lush bubbles is hardly on a par with chaining yourself to railings, being forcefed or getting trampled by a horse.

….or….Our Naked House….
I couldn’t quite decide on an adequate title for today.
Late last night, Adam’s creative side finally emerged, “I really, really wish I could invent….”

“What? What? What?!!!”
“Hang on!!”
“WHAT??!!”
“I really wish I could invent a baked bean tin that could go straight in the microwave.”
“What?!”
Out of sheer laziness comes creativity.
“Perhaps if you started cooking your dinner at a reasonable time, instead of midnight, you wouldn’t get this creative urge?”
“Yeah, but I’m hungry!”

This morning, I got up early in order to take a photo of our house with ivy. But the council gardener’s got here before I was ready for them. So there’s no piccies.
They woke Olivia up, she came blearily downstairs, “They woke me up!”
“Get dressed and go say hello then.”
She did. I made them a cup of tea about 15 minutes after they got here. Olivia chatted to them, asking questions, that sort of thing, the whole entire time. She came in an hour later, “Cor, they’re taking a reeeeaally long break!”
“What? From you?”
“Shut up!”
One of them asked if she had the day off school, “No, I’m home-educated.”
“Wow! That’s nice!”
Well, I liked him!
And they saved two bird nests from the ivy. There were three, but I don’t know what happened to the other one. But two are more than enough anyway. They’re very loosely woven, so when Olivia brought them in, they sort of got spread around. We had more ‘nest’ in the hall and front room than in the actual nests themselves.
We walked to group, not being able to get our bikes (Mine survived yet another night in the weather!) out because of the scaffolding.
It did mean that we got to see lots of stuff that we wouldn’t normally when we’re whizzing past on our bikes. All the buds, budding and stuff like that. The magnolias look like they’ll be blooming good this year. We also got to chat, in a conversational way, instead of me yelling, “GET INTO GEAR!”
We chatted about food, and why I insist on Olivia having marmite at least a few times during the week.
“But I didn’t want marmite on toast for breakfast.”
“We need B12 and marmite’s the easiest way to get it. That’s why I add a spoonful to every stew we have. Or why I make you eat a marmite and peanut butter sandwich. Or marmite on toast for breakfast.”
“Oh! What like an optional ingredient?”
Perhaps she’s read too many recipes….I dunno….

Olivia upset her boyfriend at group today, quite dramatically. They were playing a game where she pretended to kick him. But actually made contact. He’s got Asperger’s. He had a major meltdown. The whole family had to leave early.
I spoke to his dad and he was fine about it. They’re all used to it and understood that Olivia hadn’t been malicious or anything grotty like that…..T just doesn’t understand all the rules of pretend play.
Moving swiftly on….we had a committee meeting in the afternoon. We got our major grant for this year!! Wahay!! So we went over all the things that are planned for the coming year. Woah!! Loads of stuff. Organic arts, circus skills, canal boat trip, Bronze-age village type activities up around Dartmoor plus archeological stuff, lots of bushcraft in a wood, rock-climbing, horsemanship and a three day trip to a youth hostel on the Jurassic Coast. And that’s not including teepee camping and snowboarding for the older ones! Can you tell I’m excited?! Sod the kids! Except because it was a ‘committee meeting’ I had a hard job staying awake.
And all of that’s still not including the outdoor centre stuff that I’m organising. Archery, kayaking, orienteering, windsurfing, raft building and a climbing wall. The form’s in, we’re just waiting to hear back from the officials who can rubber-stamp it. Fingers crossed!
And that’s also not including the school’s concert thingy in July. Us not being a school means that we’re usually the smallest group involved. And I don’t do getting up on stages at all, but I’m more than willing to go along and support!
After group, we traded Book Day vouchers for….um….books. Um, I confess I was naughty. When I sent the e-mail, I said I was home-educating 4 children. Um, do I feel guilty? Um, a bit. But then I remembered that we didn’t have any last year at all. And now I think about it, we didn’t have any the year before that either. Adam would have qualified for some too, so I’m not really being naughty, I’m just ‘catching up’ on missed vouchers. And Olivia does read a lot and appreciates it all. Does it sound like I’m desperately trying to justify my deceit? I’m really bad at being naughty, the guilt is written all over my face….
We did a bit more shoppimg….we got some more origami kits at The Works (forgot to say that we got an Australian animal one on Monday), I got part 10 of The Throw, Olivia got the next Bugs magazine, and we hit Sainsbury’s as well. We now have all the proper ingredients for the Japanese dumplings we were going to make with Lisa. We were just going to wing it before, but now I have Sake to soak the TVP in. If, of course, it lasts long enough. Till the next Japanese festival. Which just happens to be Cherry Blossom Viewing. Starting on 18th March in Tokyo. Sakura. Which also happens to be a delicious Lush bath bomb. I’ve never had Sake before, I’m not holding out much hope for it lasting that long.

Olivia got to drama this week. Like she has a problem being dramatic the rest of the week.
I had a delightfully peaceful hour reading my book. Then Lin turned up.
It was lovely to see Lin. I haven’t seen Lin for….I could scroll down and find out, but have you seen the time?!
Safe to say, it’s been ages!!!
When we did our Hina Matsuri thing on Monday, I forgot that Lin is busy that day, ’til Lisa said, “Oh, but Lin can’t come because….”
We had a lovely chat tonight (yesterday now!), and they came back to ours after drama. But only for a short time. Couldn’t get rid of them ’til gone 10!! Not that I’m complaining. We watched Nanny McPhee. They did. I was sat at the wrong angle for the flat screen.
Lin showed Olivia how to crochet. Despite getting an e-mail from Dawniy and three library books, I still haven’t managed to tutor my daughter in the fine arts. If you give me a few extra hours in the day, I will do it. I promise!
Adam got home a few minutes after 11, so Olivia showed him how to crochet too. He sat there and was totally rapt! I am shocked! Completely!! If you’d have told me 24 hours ago that Adam would be interested in crochet, I’d have spluttered all over you, “Yeah, right!!!”
Mind you, this was after an evening of snookering and the general pubbing that entails, so I’m not holding out much hope for a delightfully crocheted blanket from him….
It occurred to me that I’ve not heard anything from Olivia for about an hour and a half now. I went up to see her and she’s fast asleep. In her clothes. Do I wake her up to get her PJ’s on? Or do I leave her to sleep, and let her have a bath and get changed in the morning? Which will make my life easier tonight?
Yeah, she’s going to sleep in cords, a t-shirt and a hoodie….
And just because it made me laugh, bad vegan that I am….

…..about the ivy growing over the front of my house. I got a letter from her last week, saying that we ‘agreed by phone for me to cut a section out of the trunk, but as I hadn’t, a gardening team would be coming round today to cut back the bottom half of it.’
Huh b****y huh!!!
Lisa was here the day I got the letter, so I very indignantly showed her where I had cut a section out. Last December. The lady from the council knocked on my door promptly at 10:15. The gardening ‘team’, ie two blokes in a van, came along the path. I showed her where I’d already cut it. “It doesn’t seem to be dying back though, does it?” Not quite sure what I could do about that, not actually having any powers over the wonder that is nature.
I managed to keep my mouth shut. Except to say, “Well, I did exactly what you said to do.”
She looked at the boss of the gardening team and explained the situation again to him. Repeating again, her advice to cut out a section of the trunk to allow it to die back, “Because that will make it easier to get off, won’t it?”
“No,” said the man.
Brief and to the point! Hah! Double hah!! Silly lady from the council has no idea what she’s talking about!!! I managed to keep my mouth shut, but obviously had a huge internal struggle not to burst out laughing at the silly lady from the council who talks out of her bottom!!!
He said they’ll come back tomorrow with scaffolding to pull it all off in one go. “You will be careful of the guttering won’t you?” asked silly lady.
“Yes.” And I’m almost positive he rolled his eyes at her.
And they’re going to be careful of the other plants I have growing there, some of them were cuttings taken from plants in various dead relatives gardens. Don’t think the new owners would appreciate me lurking in the undergrowth getting new cuttings in the dead of night.
Actually, silly lady from the council was OK, not overly officious at all. Just silly. And she did keep saying, “I know you like your nature stuff.” Wha…? I think she knows our new neighbour, or our new neighbour works for the council, ‘cos I seem to remember having a conversation with her last summer about our front garden being a wildlife garden and how it was good for Olivia to look at weeds….it IS educational!! Honest!! We found 19 wildflowers in our garden, Olivia drew them, identified them, found out what uses some of them had, made a nature book to record it all….see? It was educational!
The rest of the morning, Olivia did maths, English, science and algebra workbooks.
I knitted the ninth square of The Throw. I’d forgotten to buy it last week, but remembered to get it yesterday in town. It was a really simple four row pattern, just knit and purl. But half way up it, I realised I’d knitted instead of purled, and had to take it back about five rows. Slightly vexed to say the least.
After lunch, we both read. Olivia finished hers and wrote a book review for it. I haven’t finished mine, so I don’t need to write a review of mine. Not that I had any intention to anyway.
And we used the kite paper. I relented and graciously shared with Olivia, and she graciously allowed me to borrow a pair of scissors.
“But don’t break them!”
“What do you think I’m going to do with them? Hack at the ivy?!”
By the time we finished our window patterns, it was getting a bit dark outside, but I took photos anyway. We agreed this was the best….

Trust me. It was the best. I really need a new camera. I may treat myself next month, or the next. But we both need new passports too.
And here’s a pic of the dolls that may or may not get thrown into a raging torrent….

The little dolls are supposed to lie down on the raft….but they saw the camera and jumped up, all excited like….I’ll go away and grow up now….

My bike survived the night. And from the sounds of it out there now, will have to do it all again tonight.
It’s been a lovely spring day today as well.
Oh, and we didn’t go to Di’s today. She phoned last night to say she still had a friend from Scotland staying, who was taking her out to buy a fruit tree of some variety for her birthday. So we stayed home. Except for the bit, just after lunch, when we went to the shop for some bread.
I’m off for a bath now. I know I had a Happy Hippy last night (not literally), but I’ve got a horrible stomach ache and I feel the need for Lush. A lot of Lush.

Here’s a quickie….because I’m feeling a little bit like the tortoise….

Hoodwinked/Periwinkle was good last night. I thought Olivia might wet herself at Granny’s antics.
When it had finished and I was turning the telly off, I caught the end of Troy. The bit where some bloke is saying, “Let them say I lived in the time of Achilles.” Yeah, that’ll be at the very end, the second before the credits start rolling.
Bugger! We wanted to watch that! And this week there have been Japanese animations on in the morning. Lisa told me. And she showed me in the TV pages. We’ve missed them too.
I may buy TV pages for myself and see exactly how much other TV we’ve missed this week….I heard somewhere that if you read the TV pages you don’t need to watch the telly itself. That will be my plan for next week then. When someone asks me for my opinion (and it is valued in some quarters I’ll have you know!) on the previous evenings programmes, I’ll have one to offer, instead of my usual vacant look, “Me no understand!”

We had visitors today. Lin and the boys came over, and we chatted and played with Lego. More specifically, they chatted and we played with Lego….um, no, that’s wrong….*We* chatted and *they* played with Lego. Got there in the end! And we drank tea. And got interrupted by Adam who had a really desperate, life-saving, urgent need to use the ‘puter. To play games….
We still had a nice chat though, managed to avoid mentioning sex, periods and masturbation this time. I’ve given up using those topics as ploys to get rid of Adam, as Lin will testify, they just don’t work on him anymore….

We read a news item about a huge great squid being caught…. Aha! I thought to myself. A while ago I’d printed some squid from Flying Pig….today would be a good day to make them….so that’s what we did.

Maths today was working out how many Olivia’s would be as long as a dead squid. Answer? A lot! See how our home-education malarkey is paying huge dividends??

I knitted the next square of The Throw….
And that’s been it today. Haven’t we been busy little beavers? Perhaps I shouldn’t use ‘beavers’ as a simile….um….aha! ‘Bees’. We’ve been busy little bees. Not beavers. They get up to all sorts of mischief. And they’re rude.

Now I’m going to jump in the bath (Bathos tonight) and see how high I can make the bubbles splash up the wall. Because it’s fun. And it annoys Adam when I get all immature. And annoying Adam is fun too!
I am a cruel, cruel mother.

PC World didn’t take as long as I thought it would!! I have renewed faith…. ’til the next time anyway.
A quick round up of what we’ve been doing for the….actually, it’s only been two days, but it seems sooo much longer.
Films watched: Elisabeth 1
Books read: The Monk (according to the blurb, I was expecting it to be much more saucy than it was, so my smutty side felt a little let down!)
TV: Diddly squat!
Lush moment: Karma.
Groups/general gadding about: Free Range Learning, library (to get me blog fix, which turned out not to happen ‘cos I couldn’t log in! ), museum (Olivia did one of their quiz sheets and got TWO(!) packs of trading cards), drama.
Home Education (seeing as that’s what we’re here for after all!):
English workbook - 3 pages.
Maths workbook - 1 page
Fractions workbook - 2 pages
Algebra workbook - 4 pages (her new favourite, “I find algebra fun in a kind of maths way.”[?])
Science workbook - 3 pages
Spanish workbook - 4 pages
ICT - Take a wild guess!
Scrapbook pages - 1(Valentine’s day).
The Throw: One more square completed, only 83 to go.
Huge great slabs of Green & Black’s Maya Gold consumed: 1…for me, not for anybody else, not even 10 year old daughters who have tears in their big blue eyes!
Bowel movements: Woah!! That, probably, may be a little more information than is strictly required. Unless you’re a doctor, nurse, medical student or are just plain freaky.
Oliviaisms: She said her friends’ older brother had made up a joke about McDonalds. “But it’s got a rude word in it, so I won’t tell you.” But then proceeded to tell me anyway, substituting ’s’ (Can you think of a rude word bginning with ’s’?!) for the word, as in “A man orders an s-burger, with extra s and a s-shake!” It made her laugh. A lot.
(I was left thinking that her friends’ older brother has the same high opinion of McCrapDonalds that I do.) “Can I tell you the joke and actually use the actual word?”
“No.”
“Ohhh!!”
Weird/Bizarre dreams that woke me up in the early hours of the morning: I’d been out for the day on my own (on my own is weird!), shopping (I don’t like shopping! Bizarre!), buying clothes, more specifically, a skirt (those who know me, will know that me in a skirt happens once in a blue moon….weird!), and a jingly jangly bag with big sequins (I am most definitely not a sequin person….bizarre!). Then I realised that I was going to be late, so I started rushing home. On the way, I managed to stumble into the recording of an Oprah Winfrey show (Weird!). Running away, Oprah trapped my hand between two doors. The skin was broken, it was bruised and swollen, but I passed up the chance to sue for millions so I could get home (bizarre!). Then I loitered for ages, trying to decide what magazine I wanted to buy at a train station newsstand. There was lots of running through train stations, but not actually getting on a single train. Running up a moving walkway, being passed by superfit joggers, who were then all flaked out at the top by the time I got there. Then…. running down some stairs, thinking the old woman, pulling on black leather gloves behind me, was a really, really bad person trying to get me. I managed to get through the gates at the station just as they were closing. The old lady didn’t, “But I need to get out!”
“Ha!” I laughed at her, “You need to go back over the bridge and out through the other side.”
And that was my dream. I don’t know if I got home or not. I have a book of dream interpretations….funnily enough, this one wasn’t in there.
Bizarrely, I *had* to write it all down at 5:24 this morning….not so bizarrely, I went back to sleep straight after.
Ooh….just had a thought, any psychiatrist who happens to stumble across this will have a field day….
Oh well….I’ll be the one in a strait-jacket….

I’m off to check out other blogs, keeping my fingers crossed that others are far more weird than me….wish me luck!!

I showed Olivia my ripped trousers….

“Heeheehee!! You ripped your trousers! Oh my….you really ripped your trousers!!”

 You can go right off some people….

We got to be friends with Di through a community garden that Olivia had volunteered to help at. Unfortunately, the garden lost it’s insurance funding, so Olivia was out of a job. Di has an allotment where she grows wild plants and flowers for her herbalist tendencies. All legal! We’ve been going there since late last summer, and Olivia has been learning lots about edible wild plants, herbalism and permaculture. Except over the last few months, when it’s been far too cold, so we’ve been going to Di’s house instead. She’s also a very talented artist and has been showing Olivia lots of professional techniques.

Anyways….it looks like the garden will be up and running again in the near future. Di and Olivia are very keen on volunteering for the new people who will be overseeing the project, so we arranged to have lunch at the community centre (where the garden is). Anderson, the centre manager, and Andi, who works there, were both very pleased to see Olivia back and have put her name down for volunteering as soon as the garden gets going again….in the next few weeks.

We had a lovely lunch, then the plan was for the three of us to go to the museum for a visit. But Di had a stinking headache, and Olivia’s developing a lovely cold from yesterday’s ‘bracing’ bike ride. We abandoned that plan, and went our separate ways. Although we do now have an official specially designed and printed invite to Di’s 60th birthday party at the beginning of March.

Sounds like my kind of party….I asked Di what time it starts….”Um….ooh….afternoonish?” And it will end when the last person leaves!

We did a little bit of shopping then came home to take it easy. I sorted Olivia’s scrapbooking bits and pieces into a new box we’d got, so it’ll be easier for her to find what she needs now. Olivia made a pop-up unicorn in a box, then jumped into an early (and very long) bath. She had a Lush one today….that’s my girl!!!

After dinner (and an early night for Olivia, she’s ill!), I’ll be having my bath (Tesco’s), then knitting the next square of The Throw.

P.S. We got the bus into town today.

P.P.S. I bought two (yes….two!) pairs of trousers! And a green jumper. Because I like green jumpers!

….could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood??
Yep, it’s Groundhog Day today!!!
We tried to persuade Maisy to play the part of Punxsutawney Phil this morning but she was having none of it.
I dunno….we feed her (well, Olivia does), we give her fresh water every day (well, Olivia does), we clean out her tray every day (well, Olivia does), we brush her a few times a week (well, Olivia does) and we pay her vet’s bills (AHA! That’s the bit I do!). I think we should get a little something in return. A little more than the disdain we usually get. Believe me, if cats could roll their eyes, Maisy would. They would have rolled out of her head and down the road a very long time ago.
You’d think she’d play along….but ohhh no! Getting dressed up as a rodent is obviously something any self-respecting cat just can’t bring herself to do….
So….um….what did we actually *do* for Groundhog Day then?? Um….we found a picture in a book. And looked at it.
“Yes. That’s a groundhog. Sometimes called a woodchuck. It’s a mammal. And it’s a rodent.”
We had a look at Youtube (can you tell we quite like youtube?!). We found baby groundhogs, a friendly one, and some bizarre singing ones.
Then we got a bit more serious about the whole thing….yeah, right!!
Olivia made a little pop-up groundhog….

She’s also been busy finishing some questions from yesterday’s worksheets, and adding to her scrapbook, two pages on the trip to the zoo and one on Groundhog Day. We were going to round off the day watching the film, but Amazon’s taking it’s time. I ordered it on Monday, it was despatched on Wednesday, it’s Friday now….
I’ve spent most of today finishing the square from The Throw. It took all of….ooh, let’s see now? Half an hour? Three quarters maybe?
And gathering all resources together for tomorrow, it being Setsuban. It sounds like I actually have a plan for what we’re going to do….I’m off to track down some origami paper and see how dinner’s getting on!
Happy Groundhog Day to you all! That’ll be my bad vegan moment for the day then!

Let me just make things crystal clear….I am NOT a morning person!
Not in a grumpy, don’t talk to me way, just a “I’d really rather stay in bed for as long as possible, thank you very much, drinking so much tea I’m desperate for a wee,” kind of way. Especially when I couldn’t sleep yet AGAIN(!) last night and started knitting the next square of The Throw at 2AM(!) like some crazy, hormonal, weirdo, freaky woman!!!
I had to set my radio up to extra loud so it would be sure to wake me this morning. It didn’t.
Alright, alright….I *know* that having to get up at 7:30 is, by no stretch of the imagination, excessively early, nor is having to be out of the house by 9. But were you paying attention….?!
“I’d really rather stay in bed for as long as possible, thank you very much, drinking so much tea I’m desperate for a wee!!”
Glad we got that sorted….
We got up at 7:58, I know this because I groaned pathetically at the clock, washed hair, breakfasted, packed bags, washed and cleaned teeth, did truly amazing things with Olivia’s hair, left the house at 9:05. At 9:06, returned to the house to get dressed! Ha!! Had you going there!! We got dressed after breakfasting and before packing bags….
Uneventful journey to Paignton Zoo, train on time, no delays in catching the connecting bus to the Zoo. We travelled with Sarah and her two on the train, then met Denise and her two on the bus, then met even more home-edders at the Zoo.
We didn’t stay together, each family did their own thing, we always do anyway. Me being the cruel and heartless mother that I am, have always taken some kind of worksheet/activity for Olivia to do when we’re on a trip. We’ll be having none of that socialisation nonsense!! We’re there for the ‘education’!
And seeing as *someone’s* beloved was there as well, she’d have been far too gooey-eyed to concentrate on anything so mundane as the horrendous plight of endangered animals if we’d all stuck together.
We bumped into each other at various points around the Zoo anyway, and all met up to have lunch together, hiding from the seagulls and following peacocks around in the vain hope that they’d carelessly leave a tail feather unattended. They didn’t.
I’ll leave Olivia to blog about all the animals we saw, and how much I cracked the whip….poor child!
I took some photos, but they’re crap, the only half decent ones were of Olivia at the train station coming back. And I only took them to make sure my camera wasn’t in the middle of death throes or anything….I may put them up tomorrow. We got home about quarter past 7 tonight and I’m a little pooped now to be honest.
So I’m off for a Lush old time in the bath with The Godmother….mind boggles!
And we didn’t see any Meerkats!!! Which are always the first animals we look for in any kind of zoological setting! So just to keep us both happy, and anyone else who likes meerkats, here you go!

An update…..
I have taken the supremely intelligent and highly recommended (ahem) medical route of ignoring it, hoping it will go away. Mainly because I don’t like going to the doctor, I literally have to be at death’s door to go. But surprisingly, some might say miraculously, it has indeed got better. Not completely better admittedly, but definitely a vast improvement. ‘Course, this means that my entire arm will drop off next week….in which case I might even consider going to the doctor….

Another headline on Yahoo last night:
“Jo: ‘Celebrity Big Brother Has Ruined My Life’”….Funny….I don’t remember being interviewed for that, but I still find myself nodding my head, “Yes indeed it has!”

I couldn’t get to sleep again last night, so I was pottering about with Flickr. I made the disconcerting discovery that as I’ve only got a free account, I’ll only be able to view my last 200 photos….what??!! Not fair!! I had another look at upgrading and made the pleasing discovery that it actually only costs about £13 something. In other words, a little over a £1 a month. I upgraded. Now I can see *all* my photos to infinity and beyond, ’til the apocalypse in fact….but I doubt we’ll still have electricity then, so that might be a problem. But then if it’s truly an apocalypse, I can’t see myself being desperate to look at pics of chocolate mousse and a Bangladesh flag.
So I uploaded a few photos. (Because I have no limits now….The power! The power!)
From Australia Day….

And the making of an Elizabethan Theatre, with an audience of one….

I downloaded some zoo worksheets for tomorrow, Olivia wants to concentrate on endangered animals, but I did a few others as well, won’t that be a jolly treat for her?! While I was doing that, she got on with some more workbooks, she’s finished the science one, is cracking on with the new english one and struggled (again!) with the fractions one.
We also got a ‘gift’ from Ebay, a very nice surprise because I only ordered it on Monday….some Bangladeshi coins for Olivia’s ongoing project. She didn’t know anything about it so was pretty much speechless, something I always like to promote in my beloved daughter!! And, shh! don’t tell her, I’ve also ordered a sari (Only £7.99! And free postage! Bargain!). But that’s coming direct from India, so I’ve no idea when that’ll get here.
After a very hasty lunch, we rode (Yes! Again!) into town for the storytelling. We had a bit of time so went to Poundland. Mainly so Olivia could replace a certain frame….
We also picked up some crafty things that look like fun, might have to insist that they’re ‘too advanced’ for Olivia so I’ll just *have* to do them myself!
Storytelling was good, if a tad gruesome. Apart from one mum with a young boy, it was all home-edders that we know well. And Lisa and her girls! Shouldn’t be rude because she let us tag along with her to Hawkins Bazaar where she had a 30% discount voucher. I seem to remember having one myself, but have no idea where it is now. We got a mini Zen garden, a window bird feeder and a magic garden. The magic garden is for Saturday when we’re going to be doing Japanese things, don’t mock, the mountain will be Mount Fuji! The bird feeder is for Olivia’s window, because we have to cut all the ivy down and where will the birds feed then?! The Zen garden is because I just want one, OK?! Oh, and it sort of fits in with the Japanese thing I suppose….

We meandered up to the Phoenix via Smiths, I had to get the next issue of The Art of Knitting and The Throw. Olivia really wanted to go to the museum for an hour before drama, I really wanted to go straight to the Phoenix to sit quietly and meditate. Guess who won? Clue….I am so much bigger than her! Yep, ’twas me!!! We got there and bumped into Sarah (another home-edder) and her two. So we chatted, and Olivia showed her kids the Hawkins Bazaar catalogue. I have to say that O made a ‘tremendous’ (Olivia’s words!) bash at totally demolishing a chocolate flapjack!
Olivia did her thing, I read some of my new library book, then had a lovely long chat with Lin.
Lin had brought a Vie shot that she and M really didn’t like. They (L and M!) are so weird!!! Me and Olivia (I know! Olivia and I!)tried it and both loved it. I loved the tiny sip I had so much that I wanted more, but Olivia wasn’t inclined to share very much of it.

Now I’m very tired, we have to be at the train station for 9:44, which I’m not looking forward to.
I think I may be extremely extravagant and have another Lush bath tonight. I was trying to work out how long it’s been since my last lot of Lush, Lin said it had only been about two weeks, I said no, it was much longer than that, much longer than a month….we worked it out….it’s been about three weeks….it just seems so much longer!!!!
Oh, and here’s a link I’d told Lin about at the Phoenix. It didn’t begin with ‘p’ at all!